US and British relatives split over release of Lockerbie bomber

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was sentenced to life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Photograph: PA

A sharp division broke out today between relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, with American families strongly opposed to the release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan serving life for the attack.

Many of the British families, deeply suspicious about the official version of events, were sympathetic to Megrahi's return to Libya on compassionate grounds because of his advanced cancer.

Susan Cohen, from New Jersey, whose daughter Theodora was one of 35 Syracuse University students on Pan Am flight 103, which was blown up over Scotland in 1988, said: "Any letting out of Megrahi would be a disgrace. It makes me sick, and if there is a compassionate release then I think that is vile."

She added: "It just shows that the power of oil money counts for more than justice. There have been so many attempts to let him off. It has to do with money and power and giving Gaddafi what he wants. My feelings, as a victim, apparently count for nothing."

Kathleen Flynn, the mother of another American victim, told GMTV she was convinced Megrahi, convicted in 2001, was guilty. "My husband and I went to the trial practically every day for many, many years. We watched all the evidence and there is no question in my mind that this man is guilty."

Some US families argued that Megrahi's release would send a message that terrorism was not taken seriously.

However, Martin Cadman, from Norfolk, whose son Bill was one of the 270 people killed in the disaster, said American relatives convinced of Megrahi's guilt, and sceptical about his illness, should "get real". He added: "I think they should remember that the likely cause of the bombing of Pan Am 103 was the shooting down by an American ship of an Iranian Airbus in 1988."

Pamela Dix, from UK Families Flight 103, whose brother Peter was killed, said she supported an appeal. "Even if [Megrahi] is [responsible] he is only a very small cog in the whole chain. We are still not aware of why the bombing was carried out, who else did it as co-conspirators, and why."

Asked to explain the different responses of the US and UK families, Briton Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed, said the US families had believed everything they heard at the trial n Camp Zeist in the Netherlands and wanted "closure".

Swire believes the trial was flawed, and has pointed to a key piece of evidence of which the trial judges were not aware – a break-in at Pan Am's baggage assembly shed at Heathrow on the morning of the bombing. "It was not investigated. If Heathrow had behaved responsibly, my daughter might still be alive," he said.

He also questions how a bomber could have relied on a timer device which would have had to accompany baggage through three airports: Malta, Frankfurt, and Heathrow. He said he was worried that in return for his freedom Megrahi might be persuaded to sign a document preventing an appeal from going ahead.

While American families say Megrahi's release would be rewarded by lucrative contracts for western companies in oil and gas-rich Libya, British families have explained Gaddafi's agreement to hand over two of his intelligence agents and pay compensation to the families by saying that the Libyan leader wanted to end sanctions and mend fences with the west.

The former Labour MP Tam Dalyell, Swire, and others who question the Camp Zeist verdict, echo what western intelligence agencies, including the British, initially concluded.

For more than a year after the bombing the agencies pointed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, led by Ahmed Jibril. Two months before the Lockerbie disaster German police had arrested members of the PFLP-GC near Frankfurt where, according to the prosecution, the bag containing the bomb was placed on the Pan Am airliner.

The widespread view was that the bombing was funded by Iran in retaliation for the mistaken shooting down of an Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes, over the Persian Gulf in July 1988. Those who question Libya's involvement note that the US and Britain changed tack after the Gulf war in 1990, when they badly needed the quiescence of Iran and the support of Syria, which was then protecting Jibril.

The trial judges heard that Megrahi placed the bomb in an unaccompanied bag at Malta's Luqa airport, from where it was transferred to the Pan Am plane at Frankfurt. Those who question the verdict point to an earlier Palestinian suspect, Abu Talb, who had also visited Malta. He was later held in Sweden on terrorist charges and initially identified by British officials as a prime suspect.